Abstract. A wind tunnel experiment is presented which combines the use of controlled turbulent inflow conditions and a two-bladed model wind turbine utilizing a new control strategy called subspace predictive repetitive control (SPRC). The validation of the performance of SPRC was made under turbulent inflow conditions generated by an active grid. The 3m × 3m active grid is used in this experiment using a unique method to generate reproducible atmosphericlike turbulent wind fields to act on a medium sized model wind turbine. This contribution is focussing on the detailed description of the experiment and its components and the analysis of the turbulent inflow by means of one and two point statistics. Exemplarily the impact of the new control strategy to the generated turbulent test cases are discussed.
IntroductionBecause of the increasing energy consumption and the expansion of renewable energy the demands on wind energy converters are constantly increasing. Especially the development of new offshore wind turbines with higher energy production are of very high importance. As part of the Innwind.eu project, which had the overall objectives of the high performance innovative design of a beyond-state-of-the-art 10-20 MW offshore wind turbine and hardware demonstrators of some of the critical components, new mechanisms for active and passive rotor load control were developed. As the wind fields of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) acting on the rotor and the turbine are turbulent as shown in [1], the validation of these new concepts have to take place under controlled turbulent conditions. We present a wind tunnel experiment, which combines a model wind turbine equipped with these new control designs and a turbulent inflow generated by an so called active grid. The active grid is an instrument allowing us to generate turbulence with a wide range of different behaviour, additionally such turbulent flows can be repeated quite accurately. So it is possible to validate these new concepts using different turbulent inflow conditions.
A commonly applied method to reduce the cost of wind energy, is alleviating the periodic loads on turbine blades using Individual Pitch Control (IPC). In this paper, a data-driven IPC methodology called Subspace Predictive Repetitive Control (SPRC) is employed. The effectiveness of SPRC will be demonstrated on a scaled 2-bladed wind turbine. An open-jet wind tunnel with an innovative active grid is employed to generate reproducible turbulent wind conditions. A significant load reduction with limited actuator duty is achieved even under these high turbulent conditions. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that SPRC is able to adapt to changing operating conditions.
Abstract. Fluid-structure interactions are crucial for the design of rotor blades of wind power systems. Up to now, the mutual interactions between rotor blades and turbulent wind flows have been treated by complex simulations or were observed at individual discrete points. In this paper, a measurement concept is presented where spatial information of the motion/deformation of a rotating wind turbine as well as the wind flow are recorded in wind tunnel experiments. Wind flow and motion behaviour are recorded simultaneously and contactless. Techniques from the field of photogrammetry and flow measurement techniques are combined, resulting in high demands on the measurement concept. Furthermore, solutions for the realisation of a common coordinate system as well as for the synchronisation of both measuring systems are presented. In addition, the validation of the entire measurement concept is carried out based on of some wind tunnel tests in which a single rotor blade is used for the moment. This showed that the measurement concept and the proposed solutions for the simultaneous recording of wind flows and rotor blade movements are suitable in principle and that movements can be recorded and reconstructed with high accuracy.
Experimental studies of fluid-structure interaction on a single blade of the model wind turbine MoWiTO 1.8, which has been designed as an aerodynamically downscaled wind tunnel model of the NREL 5 MW turbine, were performed. Tailored inflow generated by means of a 2D active grid is used to induce dynamic stall through periodic angle of inflow changes. The interactions at the model wind turbine blade are investigated using two high-speed and non intrusive optical measurement techniques. The aerodynamics around the turbine blade is measured using temporal highly resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements at the suction side of the blade. Synchronized measurements with a high-speed photogrammetric system are linking the aerodynamic events to high accuracy measurements of the blade deflections.
The design of rotor blades is based on information about aerodynamic phenomena. An important one is fluid-structure interaction (FSI) which describes the interaction between a flexible object (rotor blade) and the surrounding fluid (wind). However, the acquisition of FSI is complex, and only a few practical concepts are known. This paper presents a measurement setup to acquire real information about the FSI of rotating wind turbines in wind tunnel experiments. The setup consists of two optical measurement systems to simultaneously record fluid (PIV system) and deformation (photogrammetry system) information in one global coordinate system. Techniques to combine both systems temporally and spatially are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, the successful application is shown by several experiments. Here, different wind conditions are applied. The experiments show that the new setup can acquire high-quality area-based information about fluid and deformation.
Wind tunnel experiments with wind turbine models are a promising method for investigating fluid structure interaction (FSI) phenomena. However, the lack of suitable models that feature properly scaled blades and the complexity of aeroelastic and fluid dynamic measurements during turbine operation is challenging. In this paper, the design methodology for aeroelastically scaled blades which are intended for Model Wind Turbine Oldenburg (MoWiTO) 1.8 is presented. The scaling relations are formulated, initiating from the existing turbines’ design. Next, the manufactured blades are equipped on MoWiTO and are subsequently evaluated, during operation under gusty wind fields produced by an active grid. The tip deflection is recorded using an innovative photogrammetry setup. Simulations of an OpenFAST model, which has properties extracted from the scaling formulation, are used as reference. The recorded loads and blade deformations show similar dynamics, compared to the reference. These results prove the design successful, and the capability of measuring FSI phenomena in wind tunnel environment is showcased.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.